>>91470876In fiction it's admittedly usually just easy for lazy writers to stencil whatever concepts seem to pay off or at least not cost them anything rather than flesh out their own unique setting.
However on the subject of reality? It obviously depends where you schooled. You can't just say "US schools", like there's just this one campus stretching from coast to coast everyone attends. Things vary not just between countries but within countries based on class, cultures and other social aspects that are prominent.
Typically a school's sports circle's weight is as big as the school's sports presence in tournaments.
If the teams are a complete joke or aren't that noteworthy or don't even exist then of course no one in the school is going to really feel any pride attending their games or respecting the people behind the flops. So the cheerleader circle, who are typically responsible for influencing said "school spirit", don't have much to work with do they?
The cheerleaders schooling where the big leagues are however? They often mingle closely with sports teams and other groups who attend events.
To be clear, just being a cheerleader isn't enough to be " powerful". It provides the opportunity, but isn't guaranteed. Unless they're pulling all the heart strings in the locker rooms and know people who know people they're just some chick in the squad like the rest.
It's not just cheer teams anyway. Ultimately the sort of person who has power in anywhere is just the sort who knows how to make one person bend a knee so ten others bow.
Party throwers, hustlers, the wealthy and pretty usually have the easiest time pulling this off and getting away with it, but that doesn't mean they always will.
